Joel Klatt evaluates what Jim Harbaugh will do with first Chargers draft pick

One of the first big moments of the Jim Harbaugh Era for the Los Angeles Chargers will come when the team makes a selection with — or trades – the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. And Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt has a suspicion for what direction Harbaugh and Co. might go.

As Klatt laid out a 2024 mock draft, he suspected that Harbaugh will add something he’s always sought out: A move tight end. And who better to fill that void than former Georgia star Brock Bowers.

“I think it’s pretty easy to do the first four. But then the Chargers, it’s like, well where do the Chargers want to go?” Klatt said. “Do they want to go defense? Do they want to go offensive line? Or do they want to get [Justin] Herbert a weapon?

“And I just start looking at the board here and I think to myself, like, ‘Man, knowing what I know about Jim Harbaugh, knowing what I know about his philosophy, the way that he likes to play offense and all the offenses that he’s had, dating back to Stanford and then with the 49ers and then obviously with Michigan, what did they always have? A versatile group of tight ends.’ Brock Bowers to the Chargers.”

For those thinking that Harbaugh would want a sturdier, inline blocking tight end, Klatt pushed back. It’s not that Harbaugh won’t have those sort of players on his roster, but that he wants a mix and the ability to play in heavy personnel sets but with wide formations.

On Michigan’s national championship team that Harbaugh just coached, he had a trio of tight ends playing varied roles: Colston Loveland as the true pass catching threat, AJ Barner as a bit of a middle ground player, and Max Bredeson as a true inline blocker.

At time, the Wolverines would have all three on the field, but with one or both split out, also mixing motion into the equation. In those moments, having a tight end with some game altering abilities as a pass catcher pays dividends.

“The deal with Michigan over the last few years, and even if you go back to the 49ers with a guy like Vernon Davis, is that yes you’ve gotta be versatile and have the ability to go down low, which I think Bowers does, but he also wants to put two and three tight ends on the field and then have the ability to be in that big personnel group, force the defense to also get big, and then hurt you with a flex-style, fast tight end,” Klatt said, “which is exactly what Bowers is.”

So at the end of the day, when it comes time for the Chargers to make a call and make a pick, Klatt thinks Bowers is just too good of a fit to pass up.

“So to me, Bowers fits Jim Harbaugh perfectly and what the Chargers will be trying to do under that philosophy,” Klatt said. “I love that pick. That was my first one that I was like, ‘Yep, I love this. This one seems like a great fit, Bowers under Jim Harbaugh.'”